Journalists and academics bear the brunt of the massive crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey. Scores of them are currently subject to criminal investigations or behind bars. This website is dedicated to tracking the legal process against them.

Information on this website is compiled by Punto24 (Platform for Independent Journalism) from open sources.

Journalists in State of Emergency – 3

The number of journalists who are known to be in custody as part of Turkey’s post-coup attempt investigation has reached 42, after Arda Akın –an award winning reporter for Hürriyet; Ufuk Şanlı –columnist for the now defunct newspaper Millet; and the 80-year old Hilmi Yavuz –one of the most prominent Turkish poets of his generation and a columnist for the now defunct Zaman– were detained.

An octogenarian poet is detained for alleged links to the coup-attempt

By the morning of July 28, detention warrants had been issued for 89 journalists and 39 of them were already put into police custody.

On July 28, it was reported by @hilmi_yavuz_ (the Twitter account managed by the poet’s editor) that Hilmi Yavuz had gone to the police department in the morning to answer questions related to the coup-attempt investigation. As the day closed, Hilmi Yavuz was still in police custody in Gayrettepe, he had not been taken to testify before a prosecutor yet, nor had he been allowed to see his attorney and family members. No official explanation was made for his detention overnight.

A day before, Hilmi Yavuz announced from the same Twitter account that he was all packed and waiting for the police to come and get him from his house. According to tweets by journalist Tuğba Tekerek (@tugbatekerek) however, while Hilmi Yavuz waited for the police in his house in Bodrum, security teams entered his apartment in Istanbul with the help of a locksmith and found nobody home. Upon hearing what had happened in Istanbul, the octogenarian poet travelled to the city from Bodrum and turned himself in.

This list has been compiled by P24 editors from open news sources and will be updated regularly. Journalists who want to report developments about themselves or their colleagues can contact us at punto24info@gmail.com